"The mother of Harriet Tong died when the latter was but three years of age and an aunt, Mrs. Eleanor Tong Newfield, took the little girl to rear. She cared for her as though she had been her own daughter, and after her marriage always lived near her. In August 1834, the uncle, Abraham Newfield, came with Rev. William Crain from Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, to Schuyler County, Illinois. They arranged to purchase the claim and cabin of Stephen Perkins in the SW 1/4 Section 6, and entered portions of the NW 1/4 (which quarter section now forms the main portion of the Wm. H. Crain estate). They then returned to Missouri and prepared to move their families to the new home. They brought two teams of horses and two yoke of oxen and an old-fashioned carryall, called the "Dearborn" which at that time was considered quite a stylish conveyance. They arrived in Rushville, December 6, 1834, and remained there until February 1835, when they moved up to Huntsville Township and took possession of their new home. Abraham Newfield built another cabin in 1835 just across the road south of the present old frame house. The old Newfield home has been torn down within comparatively recent years."

Excerpt from Ralph Waldo Crain's Pulaski section: Augusta's Story, Martha Board Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution (Augusta, Illinois: Augusta Eagle, 1922).

According to the transcription titled "Deposition of Abraham Newfield and wife," in Schuylerite, 4:190 (Winter 1972), Schuyler County Historical Society Museum, Rushville, Illinois, Abraham and Eleanor [Tong] Newfield, "Sworn and subscribed in open court March 19th 1840...depose and say, that in the year 1819 when they the deponents were residing in the County of Saint Genevieve, in the then Territory of Missouri; One James F. Tong, brother of the said Elenor F. Newfield a citizen of said County of Saint Genevieve, having then one only child was left with the same by his wife and the mother of said child, then about, or nearly two years of age. That the said wife having eloped from the bed and board of the said James F. Tong, the said child (a female) called Harriet Ellen was placed with and under the care and guardianship of the said Abraham Newfield and Eleanor F. Newfield his wife by the said father, with the injunctions to raise said child as their adopted daughter. " Efforts to locate the original March 1840 Schuyler County Circuit Court record have failed.